Texas Alimony Calculator (Spousal Maintenance)

Texas is one of the hardest states in the country to get court-ordered alimony — officially called spousal maintenance — and the amounts are strictly capped by statute. Use our free calculator to see whether you may qualify, the maximum monthly amount a Texas court could order (the lesser of $5,000 or 20% of the paying spouse’s gross monthly income), and how long payments could last based on the length of your marriage.

Court-ordered maintenance is only one path: many Texas divorces instead settle on contractual alimony, which the spouses negotiate freely as part of the property division. The calculator below covers what a judge could order; a lawyer can tell you which route fits your case. Start with our Austin spousal support lawyer page, or request a free consultation.

Under Texas Family Code Chapter 8, a spouse seeking maintenance must first show they will lack sufficient property after the divorce to provide for their minimum reasonable needs — and then fit one of four doors: (1) the marriage lasted 10 years or longer and the requesting spouse lacks the ability to earn sufficient income; (2) the paying spouse was convicted of (or received deferred adjudication for) family violence against the other spouse or a child within two years of filing; (3) the requesting spouse has an incapacitating physical or mental disability; or (4) the requesting spouse cares for a disabled child of the marriage whose needs prevent them from working.

Even when a spouse qualifies, Texas law presumes maintenance should be the lowest amount, for the shortest period, needed to meet minimum reasonable needs — and courts expect the requesting spouse to have tried to earn income or develop job skills during the divorce.

Texas caps court-ordered maintenance at the lesser of $5,000 per month or 20% of the paying spouse’s average gross monthly income (Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055). Gross income here is broad — wages, self-employment, overtime, rental income — but the 20% is applied to gross, not the net-resources figure used for child support.

Duration is capped by the length of the marriage (§ 8.054): up to 5 years for marriages of 10–20 years (and for family-violence cases under 10 years), up to 7 years for marriages of 20–30 years, and up to 10 years for marriages of 30+ years. When eligibility is based on a disability (the spouse’s own or a child’s), maintenance can continue as long as the condition does.

Remember these are ceilings, not entitlements — most awards come in well below the cap, and judges must order the shortest reasonable duration. Maintenance also ends early on remarriage, cohabitation with a romantic partner, or either spouse’s death.

Because court-ordered maintenance is so limited, spousal support in Texas is often really a negotiation: contractual alimony can be any amount and duration the spouses agree to, and it is frequently traded against property division — a larger share of the house or retirement in exchange for lower monthly payments, or vice versa. That is also why the maintenance question rarely stands alone: it moves with the property split, child support, and who keeps which assets.

If children are involved, run our Texas Child Support Calculator too — child support is calculated separately and is usually the larger number. And if you are earlier in the process, our Texas Divorce Cost Calculator estimates what the divorce itself is likely to cost.

Want to know what a realistic number looks like in your case? SMB Law, PC handles spousal maintenance, contractual alimony, and property division across Austin and Central Texas. Request a free consultation or call (512) 561-5003.